Boxes to improve safety

Cyclists in Würzburg are familiar with the problem: drivers overtaking too closely, kerbs that are not lowered, cycle lanes that are too narrow. The cycling infrastructure and its pitfalls regularly cause frustration and complaints. However, there is often a lack of concrete evidence of unfavourable or dangerous traffic conditions. This could soon be a thing of the past. This is precisely where an interdisciplinary team led by Professor Dr. Nicholas Müller comes in: it is conducting scientific research into the cycling routes used by students. Professor Dr. Müller holds a research professorship in socio-informatics and social aspects of digitalisation at the Institute of Design and Information Systems at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS). His goal is to objectively identify dangerous spots in order to increase safety for cyclists. "If we can measure where distances are not being maintained or where the infrastructure is inadequate, targeted measures can be taken," explains Professor Dr. Müller. He hopes that the research results will contribute to increasing the safety of cyclists in Würzburg.

"Cyclists are familiar with this: they are overtaken too closely on their bikes or cut off at an intersection. It's annoying, but just an anecdote. It's still possible that the cyclist was at fault or that the circumstances were bad," explains Professor Dr. Müller. To turn such anecdotes into empirical evidence, he and his team have launched their research project with the "bike boxes". Their aim is to find out which locations in Würzburg are particularly dangerous for cyclists.

From idea to implementation

Professor Dr. Müller first considered such a project with his colleague Professor Dr. Jan Wilkening from the field of geoinformatics back in 2020. This was shortly after the new distance regulation for overtaking cyclists came into force. With the amendment to the Road Traffic Regulations (StVO) in April 2020, a minimum distance of 1.5 metres applies when overtaking cyclists in built-up areas.

Since last summer, the two professors' idea has become a research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The "Dati Pilot" initiative supports innovative ideas with practical implementation. The Bike Box project was awarded the contract through a peer pitching process. "Normally, scientific applications are very complex, but this process was much simpler and we only had to write a relatively short text," explains Professor Dr. Müller. The best ideas were invited to a pitch at . "All projects listened to each other and then evaluated them. This resulted in a kind of peer pitching review. And in the end, everyone could understand why certain projects were selected."

The project is currently still in its initial phase. "We are currently developing the hardware, i.e. the electronics – more specifically, we are installing the sensors and the housing. At the same time, Webfactor is developing a smartphone app that will collect the measurement data from the bike box and transfer it to a database for processing," explains Susanna Götz, a research associate working on the project. From spring 2025, 100 of these sensor-supported boxes will be issued to students in Würzburg. They will attach the waterproof devices to their bicycles to collect data during their rides and thus measure the city from the perspective of cyclists. The data will be evaluated anonymously. "Hopefully, this will give us an overview of dangerous spots for cyclists in Würzburg," summarises Götz.

Professor Dr. Müller is convinced that a project such as the bike boxes can only be successfully implemented through collaboration between different disciplines in order to solve the complex challenges of road safety and digitalisation. And so the project brings together the disciplines of computer science, design and applied social sciences. "Each discipline contributes to illuminating the problem from a different perspective and developing innovative solutions," says Professor Dr. Müller.

The aim is to identify problematic areas where distances are regularly not maintained or road damage is detected, and to back this up with quantitative data. Professor Dr. Müller explains: "The most important thing is that we can see when problems occur on different days and from different boxes at the same location." The data obtained could help not only urban planners, but also cyclists themselves. Based on the measurements, they could adjust their routes and choose alternatives that are safer or less polluted.

Thanks to project funding, development, design and construction can take place at a high level with the greatest possible protection for users' privacy. "There is no GPS sensor in the box itself, but rather a small Bluetooth module that communicates with the mobile phone," emphasises Professor Dr. Müller. The team placed great importance on privacy protection, so sensor data such as overtaking distances, vibrations, and environmental pollution are sent to a mobile phone app via Bluetooth.

"The mobile phone receives the data, stores it temporarily, and the app links the measured values to the GPS coordinates of the mobile phone. The data is then uploaded to the server in anonymised form. We don't know who uploaded the data, only the GPS coordinates and sensor readings," Professor Dr. Müller continues. And to protect sensitive data such as home or destination addresses, the first and last 100 metres or 60 seconds of the route are automatically deleted. "We just want to know what happens on the route in between," says Professor Dr. Müller. The anecdotes of cyclists in Würzburg will soon be converted into quantitatively measurable results – with the ultimate aim of increasing safety for cyclists.